Church History 7.20.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Dionysius wrote festal letters, one setting an eight-year Easter cycle placing Easter after the spring equinox.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:316–317

Ὅ γε μὴν Διονύσιος πρὸς ταῖς δηλωθείσαις ἐπιστολαῖς αὐτοῦ ἔτι καὶ τὰς φερομένας ἑορταστικὰς τὸ τηνικαῦτα συντάττει, πανηγυρικωτέρους ἐν αὐταῖς περὶ τῆς τοῦ πάσχα ἑορτῆς ἀνακινῶν λόγους. τούτων τὴν μὲν Φλαουΐῳ προσφωνεῖ, τὴν δὲ Δομετίῳ καὶ Διδύμῳ, ἐν ἡ καὶ κανόνα ἐκτίθεται ὀκταετηρίδος, ὅτι μὴ ἄλλοτε ἢ μετὰ τὴν ἐαρινὴν ἰσημερίαν προσήκοι τὴν τοῦ πάσχα ἑορτὴν ἐπιτελεῖν παριστάμενος. πρὸς ταύταις καὶ ἄλλην τοῖς κατʼ Ἀλεξάνδρειαν συμπρεσβυτέροις ἐπιστολὴν διαχαράττει, ἑτέροις τε ὁμοῦ διαφόρως, καὶ ταύτας ἔτι τοῦ διωγμοῦ συνεστῶτος.

English · Claude translation

Dionysius, besides the letters mentioned, also composed at that time the extant festal letters, in which he discourses more solemnly about the feast of the Pascha. One of these he addresses to Flavius, another to Domitius and Didymus, in which he also sets out an eight-year cycle, establishing that the feast of the Pascha should be kept at no other time than after the spring equinox. Besides these he writes another letter to his fellow presbyters at Alexandria, and others to various persons, and these while the persecution was still going on.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:316–317 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Extrabiblical texts

Dionysius of Alexandria (Dionysius of Alexandria (letters and fragments)) · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Church office

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/20/1/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/20/1/).